The following is my speech at the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans on March 24, 2015.

Check Against Delivery

Thank you inviting me to testify a 2nd time. You have come face to face with the challenge of weighing what the salmon farming industry needs against what Canadians might lose by granting this industry unprecedented rights in Canada.

Salmon farms grow as many animals as possible, in as small a space as possible, on an artificial diet - they are feedlots.

Feedlots have profound and dangerous affect on diseases that have become a serious threat to health and food security - avian flu, swine flu, chronic wasting disease are a few examples.

When disease breaks out feedlots are strictly quarantined, but this is not possible in a fish farm where nets are the only barrier between wild and farmed salmon.

When the ISA virus entered salmon farms it dropped portions of its genetic sequence and mutated from benign to become the most lethal salmon virus known.

Sea lice in Norway are so drug resistant that the hydrogen peroxide treatments are the burning skin right off living salmon. Norwegian veterinarians released photos last week concerned about animal welfare.

The majority of farmed salmon for sale in BC are infected with a virus associated with salmon heart disease in Norway.

When a DFO scientist reported the first hard evidence on what is killing the Fraser sockeye it was a virus associated with salmon farms - she was muzzled.

I have spent the past 3.5 years tracking viruses in BC farmed salmon.

When I see three new salmon farm applications on the Fraser sockeye migration route north of Discovery Islands, in absence of consultation with Fraser River First Nations, I see a biological time bomb, with enormous social and commerce implications.

Today DFO and Genome Canada are partnered in the biggest study ever on pathogen exchange between farmed and wild salmon, but without waiting for the results the federal government has offered the salmon farming industry 9-year licences to increase investor confidence.

Ongoing salmon farm scandals in Norway, the mother country of this industry, has caused politicians to offer the industry generous incentive to get itself into quarantine for its own good. Senators your chamber of sober second thought could open the door to a brilliant future for an aquaculture industry if it was isolated from wild fisheries, learned to grow its own food and recycle its waste. Salmon farming is currently a dirty industry that must be removed from wild salmon habitat.

All industries have to mature, and this one is just too big now to be dumping raw untreated feedlot waste into our biggest wild salmon migration routes while at the same time asking for exceptional legislated treatment. It is time to lead this dirty industry into a better future.

There is no need to gamble the needs of this industry against the public interest – we can have both.

This Senate Committee is studying the regulation of aquaculture, current challenges and future prospects for the industry in Canada

This senate committee is reviewing aquaculture regulation in Canada. On the list of considerations is whether to remove section 36 of the Fisheries Act , which prohibits release of substances that kill fish. The salmon farming industry is struggling with drug resistant sea lice. In Norway sea lice are so drug resistant the industry is using a hydrogen peroxide formulation so strong it is burning the skin off the farmed salmon. Norwegian vets released pictures out of concern for the welfare of these fish.

The industry is also seeking ownership of the salmon they put in their pens. For the past 30 years, they have been subject to Canadian law which does not permit private ownership of fish in the sea. Because salmon farmers use net pens and the ocean currents flow through the nets, farm salmon are currently subject to fishery laws.

On February 20, 2015 I launched a DIVEST DIRTY SALMON petition directed at Norway, a country of high moral standards that is the birthplace and engine behind a very dirty industry - salmon farming.

Imagine, an industry waltzes into other countries and runs an open sewer from its feedlots into the most valuable wild salmon habitats in the world.

It's bad enough that Canada is so eager to please Norway that we trade food sovereignty and the much larger wild salmon economy for a little pat on the head, but NORWAY seems to forget the standards held dear by her people when using other countries to make a NOK.

The story appeared in Norwegian, thousands of people have signed this petition, many of them from Norway!

"I hate farm salmon" Oslo, Norway

"I'm involved with trying to bring back the health of local rivers back home. This subject concerns me" ØYSTESE, NORWAY

"Fish farms are nasty. And the politicians that support them are corrupt." OSLO, NORWAY

Salmon farming was born in Norway and Norway is engine behind it. The head offices of the BC fish farm industry are in Norway where scandal and accusations surround this industry.

After a massive escape of Norwegian fish farm full of North American steelhead into the fjords near Bergen, Norwegian politicians began suggesting it's time this trouble-ridden industry got out of the ocean - to protect wild salmon and the industry itself.

Deaf to the rising controversy, the Harper government, just announced Canada would lock up sites on the BC coast into 9-year salmon farm licence terms. This up from single year terms. The industry claims this is essential to keep investors, but when you look at who is invested in salmon farming, you see Statoil, a ex-Norwegian who is a billionaire and US and Norwegian banks. This money never makes an appearance in Canada, even though BC pays for the impact of tons of industrial fish feedlot effluent daily per farm.

Eastern Canada is also in uproar over salmon farming because the Harper government is downgrading the Fisheries Act to allow the industry to use de-lousing chemicals that impact lobster - Canada's biggest fishery.

"We want to nip this in the bud, we want to raise the consciousness of this issue right across the country. Pesticides in fish farms may be necessary from [the aquaculture industry’s] standpoint, but they're absolutely damaging from the standpoint of coastal communities, of the wild fisheries," said Lamont [Tangier Lobster], one of 120 people who have united in their fight against the proposed changes and sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. CBC News

What can We Do About This?

Ask Norwegians to divest funds from dirty salmon.

Don't eat it.

If it has white stripes - it's farmed salmon, please don't eat it until it gets out of our global oceans.

Comment on two new salmon farms on BC coast.

Local people speak to Grieg Seafood at open house on February 10 in Port McNeill. 120 people pack the house.

The trouble with these two salmon farm applications:

They set precendent in allowing farms closer than 3 km, which was set by the Province of BC.

They set precedent in allowing shellfish leases to be flipped to become fin fish farms. If this goes through many shellfish leases will be turned into salmon farms

These farms are on the most productive local shrimping grounds and will displace local fishermen with no compensation for loss of income and their livliehood

These fish farms are in an area where the chinook salmon of Knight Inlet rest on their way up the inlet. If there are diseases in the farms, they can become infected and infect the rivers of Glendale, Klinaklini and Franklin Rivers.

An infected salmon farm can released 65 billion infectious viral particles per hour (DFO Dr. Kyle Garver testimony Cohen Commission) and a the tides in this area can move 10km in 6 hours. So whatever comes out of these farms will be spread far beyond the lease

This is a provincial decision, talk to your MLA!

These farms also need a federal license which costs $800,000 in Norway, but are given out for free in Canada

These farms are permitted to transfer diseased salmon from their hatcheries into this place, I am fighting this in court, decision has been pending for 8 months.

Despite the uproar in Norway, Norwegian companies trying to expand in British Columbia.

Escaped, diseased steelhead in Norway, many have no eyes

The strong reaction by Norwegian fishermen to the massive escape of diseased North American steelhead into Norway's fjords has not let up. In fact, they have inspired the Norwegian government to enact a new law that would see fines laid for letting farmed salmon escape.

However, the damage has been done. On Sunday, Feb 8, Dr. Are Nylund, leading virologist at the University of Bergen, who is testing these steelhead for free because he is so concerned, reports they were all infected pancreas disease and that all of these fish should have been slaughtered while still in the farms according to the laws of Norway. Instead they are swimming up Norwegian rivers carrying a disease that could harm the last wild Atlantic salmon left.

The response by the Norwegian government, while a good step, is tragically late. Norwegian sport fishermen have removed thousands of the farmed steelhead, but the disfigured and diseased farmed fish just keep coming.

Two political parties in Norway are now recommending that if Norway wants to remain competitive, it is time to move the industry onto land!

Ola Borten Moe, leader of Norway's Center Party, suggests waiving the cost of salmon farm licencing (over $1 million CND in Norway, but given away for free in Canada!) for any salmon farm established in Norway on land. He suggests this would protect Norway’s environment, stimulate innovation, solve the industry’s escalating disease and lice problems and increase job opportunities across the country. Norwegian Green Party Kristin Mørch, made a strong statement aimed directly at the industry "Aquaculture is causing massive destruction and operates large-scale animal cruelty. Change can no longer be refused, restructure is going to push forward whether you want to or not... yes, to farming, but not at the expense of the environment and animal welfare."

Here in BC, it is as if none of this is happening. It is as if the impact of taking a wild foreign fish into a feedlot has no consequence. It is as if the risk of disease is unknown. A wealthy Norwegian shipping family, the Griegs, want to put two more salmon farms on the BC coast, in Knights Inlet.

Here is Elizabeth Grieg winning an award last year.

Elizabeth Grieg, pictured above, is challenging other companies to limit their impact of climate change (see below). This appears disconnected from the activities of the Grieg family here in BC. Wild salmon are critical to fighting climate change in BC, as they provide essential nutrients that feed the trees that pull carbon out of the atmosphere and produce the oxygen we breath! The size of BC salmon runs can be measured in the growth rings of the trees. The more salmon the more the trees grow, the more they grow, the more carbon they absorb. How can the Griegs fight climate change and place more fish farms in BC?

Astonishingly the company that bears her name is advertising a product called "Skuna Bay" by telling the public that they are actually saving wild salmon! There is no evidence the Grieg family company is saving wild salmon. This, in my opinion, is shamefully misleading.

Ms Grieg, may not be aware of the issues that the people of BC have with Norwegian companies raising millions of Atlantic salmon here, releasing tons of waste produce daily per farm, nor the threat of disease from Atlantic salmon on the Pacific.

106,000 people are telling the BC government to stop approving salmon farms.

There is an open house in Port McNeill on Feb 10, 4-8pm in the Black Bear Motel on these two new salmon farm applications for the Knights Inlet area. This is an important shrimp fishing area, Chinook salmon traveling up Knights Inlet rest in this area. Tidal currents can carry particles 10 km in a single tide (Institute of Ocean Sciences) and so the effluent from these farms will add to the wild salmon exposure to salmon farm pollution and disease. This includes the Fraser River sockeye salmon.

I believe that it is important to protect wild salmon for many reasons and if you feel the same way, your voice is required. There is no way around it. You have to engage on this, like the fishermen in Norway are doing. Are we going to protect our fishing grounds and the fish that help make the oxygen we breath? Every single voice is powerful.

Challenges 500 top executives

January 14, 2013

Elisabeth Grieg, Siri Kalvig and Jens Ulltveit-Moe sends this week out climate magazine 2 ° C to the leaders of Norway's 500 largest companies. In the letter which the three attaching magazine challenges the industry colleagues to take the climate threat seriously. The letter states:

Elisabeth Grieg (Photo: Marianne Otterdahl-Jensen)

Dear colleagues in Norwegian industry,

Year we have put behind us are historical;concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is measured at levels not previously seen and climate change emerges as an unpleasant reality.

- Sea ice in the Arctic hit a new record melt.

- Extreme weather affected thousands of people and destroyed values ​​billion.Caribbean and the US East Coast got great destruction because of the tropical hurricane Sandy.Both the United States, Russia, Spain and the Balkans were affected by severe drought and the Philippines have hundreds of thousands flee floods.Researchers do not link individual events directly to climate change, but notes that climate change increases the risk of more extreme weather.

For us, as leaders in business, is climate change a reality we have to deal with.All businesses should seek to reduce their own emissions.Meanwhile, climate change alter the terms of employment.The development of climate friendly solutions also represents great opportunities.While political processes and development of transnational climate agreements take a long time, businesses have an ability to adapt swiftly and thus considerable influence.We therefore have both the responsibility and the opportunity to make a difference.

The basis for all decision makers - both in politics and business - is the knowledge that climate science brings forth.Precisely why we want to make you aware of the magazine 2 ° C and the website tograder.no.Here is a presentation of climate science news - complex relationships are discussed and analyzed.

Our generation is the first to have the knowledge of how serious the situation is.It commits!

On January 10th a hurricane hit the southern end of Norway, near Bergen. It was forecast in the days leading up to the storm and the salmon farming industry claimed they were ready, that the chains anchoring their pens full of fish could withstand the winds, that there would be no escapes. This was important, because Norway had just informed the industry there would be zero tolerance for escapes.

The science on escaped Atlantic salmon in Norway, reports that farmed salmon will breed with wild salmon and create offspring, but that these hybrids will fail to return home. Therefore, wild eggs fertilized by farmed salmon means those eggs are lost. Genetic pollution, as it is called, is one of the leading reasons given for the decline of wild salmon in Norway. Farmed salmon are in most rivers, there are only 500,000 wild salmon left, approximately 1/2 the number of fish found in a single fish farm.

The first sport fishermen to venture out on the fjords near Bergen after the storm were sickened by what they saw. The water was boiling with escaped farmed rainbow trout! Technically, because they were in sea water, these would be called steelhead, but they did not look like the magnificent steelhead so beloved to thousands of British Columbians. These were "flabby", blotchy fish with misshapen bodies. They are not native to Norway, these fish came from North America originally.

Worst of all they were mature, ready to spawn and the fishermen knew what that meant. While escaped rainbow trout, have not established in Norway, they do dig in the rivers and thus destroy nests of wild salmon eggs. The precious wild Atlantic salmon eggs were in danger of being dug up by the repulsive invaders and so the fishermen took it on themselves to catch every last one before the damage could be done.

Facebook lit up with pictures of the farm rainbow trout and I understood for the first time how the Norwegians feel when they see how salmon farming in BC has disfigured their beautiful wild salmon. Steelhead are close to sacred in BC, but in Norway, they are monsters.

The Askøy Hunter & Fisherman's Association decided to get some of these fish tested for disease, because they looked so sick. They were hemorrhaging blood in their muscle tissue.

Seven farmed trout were sent to Dr. Are Nylund of the nearby University of Bergen. Nylund is a leading salmon disease specialist publishing ground-breaking work on new diseases in farmed salmon. When his team reported that the ISA virus had traveled to Chile in farmed Atlantic salmon eggs, he was hit with accusations of scientific misconduct. He spent year fighting these accusations and was finally cleared, but at great personal cost. However, he survived uncowed and he took the fish from the fishermen.

One was infected with the salmon alphavirus, which causes pancreas disease (PD), which is killing so many farmed fish it is eating into company profits and viability. This was the worst news possible to the fishermen because the escaped rainbow trout were pouring towards the rivers.

The Norwegian government did not see the fishermen's independent testing as helpful. Pancreas Disease is reportable in Norway and there did not seem to be any record of these fish being infected. The government recommended that people only use "official" labs. “It takes an expert to confirm and make such a diagnosis.” A government spokesperson pointed out that just because evidence of PD was found, did not mean the fish was sick. Of course, this is what the Canadian government said when ISA virus was detected by government labs in BC, where the virus officially does not exist. However, the Norwegian fishermen didn't care if the farmed salmon had the disease or not, they were racing to prevent farmed fish carrying the virus from entering the rivers and making the wild salmon sick.

They are catching 60-80 fish each per day. They are angry that the fish farmers did not come to help.

The Director of Fisheries, Liv Holmefjord, made a statement; "I am sure we can prevent similar incidents in the future." But the salmon farmers don't seem to be on a learning curve. They claimed this was not their fault because the chains they purchased had been certified to withstand 70 tons of load and broke at 30 tons.

"The situation has been dangerous for a long time. We have very few wild fish stocks due to aquaculture and all sea-lice they inflict other fish. The aquaculture industry is the lusefabrikker, lice maker, in the fjords"

Fisherwoman Regine Emilie Mathisen calls the escaped farmed fish an environmental catastrophe for her town of Askøy.

And then, an incredible thing happened, Norwegian politicians, who appear to care about the people of Norway and her wild heritage, came forward and stated the obvious. It was time to do something different.

Deputy Ola Borten Moe, leader of the Center Party, suggested it is time move the salmon farming industry on to land. Furthermore he is asking Norway to to waive the high cost of a salmon farm licence ($11.5 million) for any salmon farm established on land. He points out that this is the only way that Norway will remain competitive and furthermore that this would protect Norway's environment, stimulate innovation and finally solve the industry's escalating disease, sea lice and drug dependency, while increasing jobs.

Norwegian Green Party,Kristin Mørch, made a strong statement aimed directly at the industry "Aquaculture is causing massive destruction and operates large-scale animal cruelty. Change can no longer be refused, restructure is going to push forward whether you want to or not... yes, to farming, but not at the expense of the environment and animal welfare."

The controversy wages on. At first people were told they could eat the escaped salmon Then the Norwegian Seafood Federation said the gruesome-looking fish were not intended for human consumption. Still others suggested the rainbows had been medicated in December for delousing, which suggests they were not scheduled to be destroyed and the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries finally said they should not be eaten because they could still contain the drug.

I don't think there is much chance of a Norwegian eating these fish, which raises the question, who were these fish destined for?

This event and the reaction in Norway is very significant to us in British Columbia. Norway is the mother of the salmon farming industry and if she is telling the industry it is time to clean up, get out of the ocean and show some respect for wild salmon and all the people who want them, then maybe Canada should consider doing the same. I was shocked to learn the enormous cost of a salmon farming licence in Norway, $11.5 million! While here is Canada it would appear the licences are being handed out for free!!! If anyone can correct me on this please comment below, this can't be true, really is Canada giving out free licences to companies that cost $11.5 million back home?

In an open letter on January 29th the Norwegian Hunting and Fishing Society demanded that the Fisheries Minister be removed. (Please note this is an online translation of a Norwegian document)

If you want to follow this breaking story, you can find me on Facebook, or check back here. I am posting the stories as they come in and some of the Norwegians out there fishing up these abominations are posting there too.

Please share this story with your federal candidates so that they can see what their peers in Norway are saying about this Norwegian industry. If you have even just $10 to spare please donate on the upper right of this blog so that I can reach out to the public who are putting farmed fish in their mouths. They are the powerhouse behind this industry, when they say no more farmed salmon dinners until the industry gets away from the wild salmon of the world, the industry will pick up and do exactly that so fast it will amaze us all. And then finally we can get back to work bringing BC's and Norway's wild salmon back to us. I leave you with a quote from one of the fishermen out there today trying to get our fish out of her waters.

“This is an environmental catastrophe that only escalates; I feel that those who govern this country are stealing nature from the youth. We can not keep on like this anymore!” Regine Emilie Mathisen.

The salmon farming industry has awoken from a year of slumber and is on the move. It is expanding getting more drugs and being certified as sustainable... Here is what you can do.

New sites:

Two new applications have been made by the Norwegian family-owned Grieg Seafood to the Province of BC. Premier Clark is the landlord of this industry, deciding where the farms are put.

The Grieg family has a lot going on, salmon farming is just a small part of their wealth.

These new sites are in addition, to the two new sites applied for by salmon farming giant, Marine Harvest, just the north of Port Hardy. All four of these application have been approved by local First Nations, but without consultation with the Fraser River Nations who depend on salmon that will be exposed to the effluent from these farms. The ocean moves and wild salmon move and so when part of this coast is impacted, the impacts spread far, far beyond the net cages.

I spent ten years tracking juvenile salmon through this region, counting sea lice on them, publishing scientific papers on how salmon farms infect young wild salmon (see my research here). Put simply the more salmon farms, the more lice, and the more impact on wild salmon. As a result of this work and the work of others, we forced the industry to get rid of their lice just before the young wild salmon left their rivers. Unfortunately this is achieved with drugs. We saved the Area 12 Mainland pink salmon stock, but it would appear to be a temporary fix. See hydrogen peroxide below.

The new sites are on important shrimping grounds and in a narrow channel where salmon headed up Knights Inlet rest. Ocean currents can move a particle 10 km in 6 hours here and so what comes out of all these farms wafts out into areas where many southcoast salmon migrate.The salmon farming economy is based on share price, and so it must grow... and grow... and grow. It will never be satisfied, it can't surive if it stops growing. I don't know why we let this happen to this coast.

There is an open house regarding these new sites hosted by the Province of BC for you to voice your opinion about these new sites. It will be held in Port McNeill, at the Blackbear Resort on February 10 4-8 pm. Or you can provide your thoughts online about these two new salmon farms here. Click on the links below and scroll down to the bottom and click on the link. It is very important that you voice any concern that you have, very, very important.

Grieg Seafood actually claims they are saving wild salmon in their slick marketing of their "Skuna Bay" product.

Thousands of people do not want salmon farms on wild salmon migration routes, but Premier Clark can't hear us. Her government is hearing from the Grieg family reps, they have $millions to communicate effectively and widely. It is not a fair fight.

Hydrogen Peroxide

The BC Clark government has approved the use of hydrogen peroxide on sea lice in the Marine Harvest fish farms in Quatsino Sound. Here is the PESTICIDE USE PERMIT.

As I mentioned above, getting rid of sea lice on farmed salmon is a good thing, but the salmon farming industry is losing its drug war with this little parasite. Moving their farms out of the ocean would solve this and many other problems for this industry, but they need to operate as cheaply as possible, so they just keep finding new drugs. Some even use drugs they might have to go to jail for... and still they can't stop the louse.

So they came up with a hydrogen peroxide "bath." Tarps are placed around the pens, the drug is poured in. The sea lice go into shock when the drug gets inside them, fall off the fish and the tarps are raised pouring the drug out into the ocean. The directions state the chemical breaks down quickly, but here is the concern.

Millions of young wild salmon migrate right along and through the pens many are tiny, less than 3 cm long. Their skin is bare, with no scales. If they happen to be alongside a pen as the tarps are lifted their entire bodies and tiny gills will be awash in hydrogen peroxide. Our provincial government has granted these permits with no prohibition against treatments when wild salmon are migrating past. They have no research to show on what this will do to young salmon.

Granted Quatsino is a small area of the BC coast and only a small number of wild salmon could be exposed to the drug, but a lot of money and effort has gone into stocking the Marble River with chinook salmon. Research from UBC reports chinook are more sensitive to hydrogen peroxide than Atlantic salmon. Here is a picture of salmon after treatment with hydrogen peroxide from the DFO website.

Certification

Marine Harvest's Marsh Bay salmon farm just became the First ASC certified farm in North America. This farm is across from Port Hardy on the mainland shore, where a large percentage of the Fraser River, east Vancouver Island, Broughton and mainland inlet fish pass on their way to and from the sea. Last year this farm was given a 45% expansion permit. Living Oceans filed an Access to Information Request for the reasons DFO gave for allowing this expansion permit. DFO responded with a 210 day extension on this request. Whatever their reason, they don't seem eager to share it. This farm lost 280,000 salmon last fall, apparently to a "rare algae bloom." But how do we actually know this? Where are the lab results? Scientists have been demanding access to BC farmed salmon for decades for reseach into disease and have been denied.

Here are a couple of the dead salmon from March Bay too far gone for research.

Conclusion

Those of us fighting to protect wild salmon from salmon farms are losing, because we don't have the resources to tell people what is going on here. The province of BC, responsible for granting the new licenses likely think we have given up.

If you haven't given up here is what wild salmon need from you.

Participate in educating the public who are entering markets that sell farmed salmon CLICK HERE

Come to Port McNeill on February 10

Consider donating to my efforts to communicate with the public, after 25 years of this effort, I bellieve only the consumer can inspire this industry to clean up. I have a solid plan on how to do this and a highly skilled crew standing by standing by. We just need the funds to get the message out there. Donate here or on the upper right of this blog.

Not every part of this planet has to be abused for corporate profit does it?

Lawsuit takes aim at College of Veterinarians’ refusal to investigate complaint

Jan 06, 2015 10:29 AM

Jan 06, 2015

VANCOUVER — On behalf of their client, biologist Alexandra Morton, lawyers with Ecojustice Canada are suing the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia for refusing to investigate a complaint Ms. Morton made against a government aquaculture veterinarian. The lawsuit seeks to force the College to investigate the complaint.

In 2007, a government veterinarian gave misleading advice to the B.C. government regarding threats posed by a dangerous salmon virus called Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (“ISAV”). ISAV is an internationally reportable virus and a member of the influenza family that has killed millions of salmon and caused massive losses to aquaculture industries in Chile, eastern Canada, and Norway.

The veterinarian advised the Minister of Agriculture and Lands that the import of live Atlantic salmon eggs is a high-risk activity that contributed to the development of ISAV infection in Chile. Problematically, the veterinarian also told the Minister that live Atlantic salmon eggs are not imported to B.C. and are not allowed to be imported to be B.C.; these two facts are false. At the time the advice was provided, over 28 million live Atlantic salmon eggs had been imported to B.C. Salmon raised from those eggs were placed in open net pens on wild Pacific salmon migration routes where their viruses can come into contact with wild fish.

“ISA virus is the most lethal salmon virus known. It threatens our marine ecosystems and coastal communities and an outbreak could be catastrophic” explains Morton. “In situations like this, veterinarians must be held to the highest ethical and scientific standards.”

In 2013, Ms. Morton asked the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia to investigate whether the veterinarian’s erroneous advice amounted to professional misconduct.

“The College’s reasons for failing to investigate our client’s complaint appear inadequate” says Ecojustice lawyer Morgan Blakley. “The College must take its duty to investigate complaints seriously; especially where complaints deal with veterinary advice on issues with such far-reaching implications.”

2014 was a very tough year. It began with the Harper government throwing open the doors to more salmon farms in British Columbia, putting at risk everything that makes BC so beautiful and alive. However, no new farm sites were approved, that we know of. We held ground.

Here is a brief overview of the year, the laws that are being rewritten to fit the industry and where I think we need to take this fight.

There do not need to be any losers, but these are huge companies. Mitsubishi now owns many salmon farms throughout British Columbia. They will only change if the consumer tells them to.

Thank you to all who encouraged me, sent funds, and contacted me about diseased fish. 2015 is going to be a defining year on this front. I will never give up, and I need you to stay with me on this. The children of this world are depending on us to give them a future. We need to set this right.